STARZ

Starz doubled tune-in intent for a new show with Promoted Video and Promoted Pins

+96%

increase in show awareness

2x

increase in intent to tune-in among females

Their goal

Reaching potential viewers

Starz is a leading global media and entertainment company that provides premium subscription video programming on domestic US pay television networks. The name behind popular series like "Power," "American Gods" and "Outlander," Starz produces and distributes content for audiences around the world. The company is headquartered in Colorado with offices in Beverly Hills and New York.

In March 2017, Starz wanted to drive awareness and tune-in rates for its new series "The White Princess," which chronicles the remarkable life of Elizabeth of York in 1400s Britain. The show features a mainly female cast, and focuses on the battle between Elizabeth (wife of Henry VII and mother of Henry VIII) and other powerful women during one of the most tumultuous times in British history. Since they wanted to reach the coveted female millennial audience, Starz knew there’d be a lot of competition for viewers.

In partnership with their agency Edelman, Starz determined Pinterest would be a natural fit for the campaign. Pinterest has a highly engaged female audience, including 58% of all US women online.1 What’s more, 38% of the people on Pinterest use the platform to plan their entertainment, from what movies to watch to what shows to stream.2 There’s been a 51% increase in the number of people searching for TV or film content on Pinterest since July, 2016.3

David MuehlVice President of Digital Marketing, Starz

“It’s really important to us that we can optimize creative based on key business metrics. With Pinterest, we learned early in the campaign what was driving awareness and intent to tune-in, so we were able to optimize creative leading into the premiere.”

Their solution

Optimizing in real-time

Starz decided to run a Pinterest campaign, beginning in March and leading up to the series premiere in April. Starz used Promoted Video and Promoted Pins featuring tantalizing trailers to drive awareness for the show. Promoted Video incorporated trailer clips that showed Elizabeth slapping the king, with a juicy voiceover. Static Promoted Pins featured different characters from the show, dressed in medieval finery and with vaguely menacing gazes.

To make sure they were reaching the right people, Starz targeted people who already save entertainment Pins. Starz also used engagement retargeting throughout their campaign so they could follow up with people who had already engaged with their Pins. In the final days leading up to the show’s premiere, they also targeted a broad female audience to drive mass awareness and tune-in.

The content resonated with the audience: Pinners saved the Promoted Pins to boards with titles like “Things to remember,” “Something new to watch,” and “New Series to Watch,” demonstrating intent to tune into the show.

Starz and Edelman teamed up with Pinterest to test a new go-to-market strategy for TV shows. Through a partnership with Millward Brown, they ran real-time reporting on awareness and intent. This real-time measurement enabled Starz to optimize creative while the campaign was in flight.

Promoted Video

Their results

Increasing awareness and intent

Starz conducted a Millward Brown study to determine how Pinterest media impacted their key performance measures. The study found that the campaign on Pinterest led to a 96% increase in show awareness and a more than 2X increase in intent to tune-in among females.

This campaign showed that trailers fit well on Pinterest: one of the top performing Promoted Pins was a 17-second teaser video! Based on the success of "The White Princess" campaign, Starz plans to use Pinterest to promote future shows. “We’re excited to see how Pinterest continues to enhance their products to help us drive the most impact,” said David Muehl, Vice President of Digital Marketing, Starz.